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Starbuster 2021 demo

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Welcome back. Again. Fed up of us yet?

Starbuster is a fast-paced action platformer, where a droid and a lizard slash and grapple their way across the galaxy. Featuring a focus on fast paced combat, exploration, and weapon customisation. Rocket around, slap things, grab weapons and build your arsenal. You can't solve every problem by shooting at it but that shouldn't stop you from trying!​

This years demo introduces both protagonists, Alpha and Cassie, and sees them have to work together to escape being stranded on a strange world. The daring escape from Laboratory 19, the invasion of Union Habitat, the surreal calm of the crashed starship Petrov, and the eerie depth of Valkyrie bay.


Take control of Alpha, the latest creation of the insidious grey imperium. Defy your creators and make a break for freedom, nothing will stand in your way!​

Or follow Cassie and the Petrov crew, as they run from the ever-advancing imperial forces. Run from your problems and maybe crash a starship or two, what could go wrong?​


Alpha
Ever just wake up one day and the whole world is shooting at you?
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Featuring an infinite dash, chargeable sword and gun, and special weapon slot for missiles, slowing time and more, Alpha specialised in fast, decisive combat, ready to cut through entire legions of imperial cyborgs.

Move: Arrow keys
Jump: Space
Dash: Shift
Sword: Z
Gun: X
Special: C



Cassie
Who needs gravity anyway
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Equipped with a grappling hook, 360 degree aiming and a handy rocket punch, she's no pushover when it comes to beating up cyborgs.
Move: WSAD
Jump: Space
Aim: Mouse
Shoot: Left Mouse
Grapple: Right Mouse
Punch: Shift



[Controller support available]
[All controlls fully rebindable]

Extra controls:

Start/Esc: open menu/skip cutscene

F4: Toggle full screen

F1,F2,F3: Change resolution (1x,2x,3x)

Mods:

Each character can equip up to 10 modifications, to alter their gun, melee, core abilities plus special moves. From the simple pulse laser to the devastating starbreaker beam, there will be a weapon to suit every situation. I've not counted exactly but there's about 30 different mods to find in this demo alone. Plus a number of collectable music cassettes just in case someone gets bored.​

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Latest reviews

This game is just as good if not better than last year!

pros;
-cassie's portrait art in the char select may have changed and she looks way better now!
-jounal reports now add extra lore yeah!
-enemies have alternative ways to die [sliced with sword or exloded by gun wound
-damn alpha must have some reactor to break out of a containment centre and kill 2 minibosses
-upwards slash mod is awesome
-that ending cutscene is still hype
-cassie's stage before mission 0 song is best song
-cassies ledge grabing gives me smash flashbacks

cons;
-after stage 1; your timeslow mechanic is gone. was that delberate from the reactor overload or a glitch?
-people are mean to cassie, someone hug her
-leaving a jounal entry is the same button as abillity but thats minior
-it's almost the same build as last years but I'm cool with that!

glitches;
-glitch 1; some journal reports help scroll downwards but there's a large amount of blank space
-glitch 2; in cassie's 2nd stage, talking to the guard before opening the door saying 'as i said it's your funeral' I've never met this guard before lmao
-glitch 3; if cassie grapples an enemy near a ledge cassie will stage on the ledge until she jumps
-glitch 4; if cassie talks to someone and an enemy comes by, she'll get hit but still be in dialogue. maybe give her invincibillity while talking?

I really hope to see some more of the relationship between cassie and alpha grow and see more of that character in the ending cutscene.
I have a strong hunch this ending character may be playable after finishing the full game hmmmmm?

but anyways you guys did a bang up job and I wish you guys the best of luck on this game's development!
Proto
Proto
The timeslow dissappearing is actually a plot point. Though if you look carefully enough you might find a better version somewhere.

Every time Cassie causes technical issues I create another NPC to bully her. She knows what she did.
Fun, but there's a pretty stark difference to me in how well Alpha plays versus Cassie. Alpha flows incredibly well and aside from a few troll-ish enemies it's hard to break that flow. With Cassie, at least when using a controller, her grapple feels kind of awkward and weird to control, and as such makes it hard to gain momentum as her. It's really easy to lose that momentum too. I'm not unwilling to say I might just be bad at the game, but it took me a while to break through the glass in her intro level.

I might just be used to how Axiom Verge 2's grapple works, but maybe Cassie would flow better if hers worked a bit like that - press to launch the grapple and if it latches onto something, it pulls you rapidly towards it till you let go. Alternatively, if you wanted to keep the current way the grapple works, maybe tapping the grapple button will pull you, while holding it will let you swing?

Either way, I'd heavily recommend adding some kind of axial deadzone for the controller's right stick to help the crosshairs snap to horizontal, vertical and diagonal axes. I think this would help the issue too without changing the current vision for her grapple, and also make it a little easier to aim Cassie's gun while using a controller.

So yeah, again - the game's fun, but Alpha just feels better to control to me.
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Comments

Hey there! Awesome work!

I thought the story was neat, the graphics were awesome, the OST was good and the controls were tight. Great customization, awesome moveset for both of the heroes and the interactions between Alpha and Cassie were cool.

I did notice that there was a spelling mistake with Sally saying "it's" when it should be "its", but other than that I have no complaints! Where can I follow this project?!
 

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Proto
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